Asst Prof Tan Chin Wen

Dr Tan Chin Wen is a senior research fellow in Women's Anaesthesia, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore and an assistant professor at the Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Sciences Academic Clinical Program, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. She received a BEng in bioengineering from Nanyang Technology University, Singapore and a PhD in medicine with a focus on obstetrics and gynecology from the National University of Singapore. Her current research focus is on understanding women’s pain and psychological vulnerabilities with the use of medical technology, complementary therapies, and artificial intelligence. She received SingHealth Publish! Award 2023 in recognition of her outstanding research article in sub-acute pain after childbirth. Her work is internationally recognized, and is currently serving as the section editor for Heliyon Women’s Health, and editorial board members for BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth and BMC Anesthesiology; as well as reviewer for at least 60 journals.

• PhD Medicine (Obstetrics and Gynaecology) National University of Singapore 2015
• BEng (Bioengineering) Nanyang Technological University 2009

• Editorial board member, BMC Anesthesiology, 2025 – Present
• Section Editor – Women’s Health, Heliyon, Cell Press, 2024 – Present
• Editorial board member, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2024 – Present
• Member, Office of Digital Integration Medical Innovation & Care Transformation (DIMICT), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, 2024 – Present
• Senior Research Fellow, Department of Women’s Anaesthesia, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, 2023 – Present
• Assistant Professor, Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Sciences Academic Clinical Program, Duke-NUS Medical School, 2023 – Present
• Key member, Maternal and Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI) – Mental health and pain theme, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, 2022 – Present
• Key Member, KKH Center Grant Research Theme 2 (Women’s Mental Health and Pain), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, 2021 – Present
• Member, Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group (AI SIG), KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, 2023 – 2024

• Anaesthesiology and Perioperative Sciences (ANAES) Academic Clinical Program (ACP) Academic Day 2025 Publication Award – Second prize: Machine learning approach to predict postoperative pain after spinal morphine administration during caesarean delivery, ANAES ACP, Singapore 2025
• ANAES ACP Academic Day 2024 Publication Award – Third prize: Investigating the association factors of acute postpartum pain: a cohort study, ANAES ACP, Singapore 2024
• SingHealth Publish! Award 2023: Association of pain, analgesic, psychological, and socioeconomic factors with sub-acute pain after childbirth: A prospective cohort study, SingHealth, Singapore 2023
• COVID-19 Resilience Medal, Ministry of Health, Singapore 2023
• Long Service Award, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore 2023
• ANAES ACP Academic Day 2023 Publication Award – First prize: Association of pain, analgesic, psychological, and socioeconomic factors with sub-acute pain after childbirth: A prospective cohort study, ANAES ACP, Singapore 2023
• ANAES ACP Academic Day 2021 Publication Award – Second Prize: Investigating the association between labour epidural analgesia and postpartum depression: A prospective cohort study. ANAES ACP, Singapore 2021
• Inaugural Women in Science (WinS) Career Advancement Programme, SingHealth/Duke-NUS, Singapore 2019 – 20
• 12th Allied Health Innovative Practice Evidence-Based Practice Award, SingHealth/Duke-NUS, Singapore 2019
• Endometriosis SIG Prize Paper (Best Basic Science Poster In-Training), American Society for Reproductive Medicine 2013 Annual Meeting, American Society for Reproductive Medicine, Boston, USA 2013
• Merit award (Multi-disciplinary category) in poster and oral presentation, The 7th KKH Annual Scientific Meeting, Singapore 2013
• Third prize in poster presentation, The 8th Singapore International Congress of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (SICOG), Singapore 2011
• Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Graduate Scholarship, Singapore 2010 – 2013

• Pain and psychological factors for pain and mental health management
• Infusion systems integrated with novel software algorithms and specialized hardware
• Use of medical technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for perioperative pain management
• The use of complementary therapies for pain management (music, virtual reality, etc.)

• Development of a risk stratification model using artificial intelligence for maternal adverse outcomes in women undergoing labour epidural analgesia (Principal Investigator), 2024 – 2026
• Permissive Vital Signs-Monitored Patient-assisted Intravenous Analgesia (PVPIA) System for remifentanil to treat labour pain and prevent opioid respiratory depression (Co-Investigator), 2024 – 2025
• The effect of benzydamine hydrochloride spray on post-operative sore throat: a randomized controlled study (Co-Investigator), 2024 – 2025
• The association between intention and actual administration of labour epidural analgesia with postnatal depression and pain (Co-Investigator), 2024 – 2025
• Use of AI to identify heart rate variability alterations predictive of hypotension during spinal anaesthesia for caesarean delivery (Technical lead), 2023 – 2025
• Investigating the association between heart rate variability and postoperative acute pain: A pilot cohort study (Co-Investigator), 2023 – 2024
• Development of a novel case log platform for enhanced experiential learning (Co-Investigator), 2023 – 2024
• Automated Video Analysis based Pain Detection and Estimation System (Project Manager), 2022 – 2023
• Investigating the potential risk factors and maternal-infant outcomes associated with quality of recovery after childbirth (Principal Investigator), 2022 – 2024
• Understanding of Maternal Labor Pain and Psychological Vulnerability: A cohort study (Principal Investigator), 2019 – 2022

• The association between neuraxial labor analgesia and subacute pain after childbirth: A randomized controlled trial. Tan CW, Luther DG, Tan HS, Rahman N, Gandhi M, Sultana R, Sia AT, Sng BL. Anaesth Crit Care Pain Med. 2025:101450.
• Persistent pain six months after breast cancer surgery: a multicentre follow-up study. Tan CW, Sultana R, Wright MC, Sng BL, Habib AS. Anaesthesia. 2025;80:448-50.
• AI frontiers: an automated ultrasound-guided spinal landmark identification program for lumbar neuraxial procedures. Tan CW, Sng BL, Sia ATH. ASRA Pain Med News. 2025;50.
• Automated pain detection using facial expression in adult patients with a customized spatial temporal attention long short-term memory (STA-LSTM) network. Tan CW, Du T, Teo JC, Chan DX, Kong WM, Sng BL. Sci Rep. 2025;15(1):13429.
• Information about labor epidural analgesia: an updated evaluation on the readability, accuracy, and quality of ChatGPT responses incorporating patient preferences and complex clinical scenarios. Tan CW, Chan JCY, Chan JJI, Nagarajan S, Sng BL. Int J Obstet Anesth. 2025;63:104688.
• Does the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) identify antenatal depression and antenatal anxiety disorders? A validation study in Singapore. Zeng N, Chua TE, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sng BL, Chen H. J Affect Disord. 2025;380:496-504.
• The association of pain and psychological vulnerabilities with postpartum pain catastrophizing: a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial. Chan JC, Sultana R, Mathur D, Tan CW, Sng BL. Can J Anesth. 2025;72:603-14.
• Investigating the association between intention for labour epidural analgesia (LEA), actual delivery with LEA and postnatal depression: A secondary analysis. Chan JC, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sng BL. Indian J Anaesth. 2025;69:832-34.
• Investigating the association between labour epidural analgesia and postpartum depression: a randomised controlled trial. Tan HS, Tan CW, Sultana R, Chen HY, Chua T-E, Rahman N, Gandhi M, Sia ATH, Sng BL. Anaesthesia. 2024;79(4):357-367.
• Investigating factors associated with the development of postnatal depression after cesarean delivery: a validation cohort study. Tan DJA, Sultana R, Chow SYX, Tan CW, Tan HS, Chen HY, Chua TE, Sng BL. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2024;20:439-447.
• Factors associated with an inadvertent dural puncture or post-dural puncture headache following labour epidural analgesia: a retrospective cohort study. Kakde, Chia P, Tan HS, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sng BL. Heliyon. 2024;10:e27511.
• The correlation of rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) derived parameters with severe obstetric haemorrhage. Tan HS, Yek JJL, Allen TK, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sng BL. Proc Singapore Healthc. 2024;33:1-5.
• Sub-acute pain after childbirth during COVID-19 pandemic: a secondary analysis of a prospective clinical trial. Tan CW, Sultana R, Chang AN, Tan HS, Sng BL. Heliyon. 2024;10:e27240.
• The association between motor blockade and duration of second stage of labour with labour epidural analgesia: a retrospective cohort study. Tan DJA, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sng BL. Bali J Anesthesiol. 2024;8:88-92.
• The correlation between quality of recovery and parturient outcomes after cesarean delivery: a cohort study. Tan HS, Tan CW, Sultana R, Yang L, Mok MUS, Sng BL. Can J Anesth. 2024;71(9):1272-1281.
• Validity, reliability, and feasibility of the Malay version of obstetric quality-of-recovery tool (ObsQoR-10). Chia P, Tan CW, Nithiuthai J, Sultana R, Ithnin F, Sultan P, Sng BL. Bali J Anesthesiol. 2024;8:115-121.
• The association between epidural labour analgesia and postpartum depression: a reply. Tan CW, Tan HS, Chen HY, Chua T, Sng BL. Anaesthesia. 2024;79(9):996-997.
• Automated pain detection using STA-LSTM on facial landmarks. Du T, Choo KW, Kong WM, Tan CW, Teo JC, Chan D, Sng BL. In: Proceedings of the 2024 8th International Conference on Intelligent Systems, Metaheuristics & Swarm Intelligence (ISMSI’ 24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 36-40.
• Hemodynamic changes of women with preeclampsia undergoing spinal anesthesia for emergency cesarean section: a prospective observational study. Loh CJL, Qi Y, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sng BL, Yahaya Z. Bali J Anesthesiol. 2024;8(3):164-168.
• Machine learning approach to predict postoperative pain after spinal morphine administration during caesarean delivery. Tan CW, Koh JZ, Jin H, Han NR, Cheng SM, Ta AWA, Goh HL, Sng BL. Heliyon. 2024;23:e40602.
• Evaluating an advanced double intravenous vasopressor automated system to treat hypotension during spinal anesthesia for cesarean delivery: a randomized controlled trial. Tan HS, Nagarajan S, Chan JJ, Tan CW, Sultana R, Sia AT, Sng BL. BMC Anesthesiol. 2023;23(1):33-41.
• Automated mandatory bolus versus basal infusion for maintenance of epidural analgesia in labour. Tan HS, Zeng Y, Qi Y, Sultana R, Tan CW, Sia ATH, Sng BL, Siddiqui FJ. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2023;6:CD011344.
• Risk factors for persistent pain after breast cancer surgery: a multicentre prospective cohort study. Tan HS, Plichta JK, Kong A, Tan CW, Hwang S, Sultana R, Wright MC, Sia AT, Sng BL, Habib AS. Anaesthesia. 2023;78(4):432-441.
• Effect of music listening on perioperative anxiety, acute pain and pain catastrophizing in women undergoing elective cesarean delivery: a randomized controlled trial. Kakde A, Lim MJ, Shen H, Tan HS, Tan CW, Sultana R, Sng BL. BMC Anesthesiol. 2023;23(1):109.
• Pre-operative pain and psychological vulnerability factors associated with primary cesarean delivery: an observational study. Tan HS, Yeo KW, Tan CW, Chan JJI, Cheng S, Sultana R, Sia ATH, Sng BL. Bali J Anesthesiol. 2023;7(2):94-98.
• Satisfaction and outcomes with patient-controlled intravenous analgesia of remifentanil for labor analgesia at a specialist maternity hospital in Singapore: a retrospective observational study. Muddangula P, Tan HS, Tan CW, Leong WL, Sultana R, Sng BL. Bali J Anesthesiol. 2023;7(2):105-110.
• Use of augmented reality in learning lumbar spinal anatomy for training in labor epidural insertion: a pilot study. Lau WK, Chan JII, Chan CL, Tan CW, Sng BL. Bali J Anesthesiol. 2023;7:135-140.
• Automated identification of landmarks during pre-procedure lumbar ultrasound for spinal anaesthesia in obese parturients: a prospective cohort study. Tan HS, Chan JJ, Oh TT, Lim MJ, Tan CW, Sultana R, Sng BL. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2023;40(9):710-714.
• Investigating the association factors of acute postpartum pain: a cohort study. Tan CW, Tan NYK, Sultana R, Tan HS, Sng BL. BMC Anesthesiol. 2023;23(1):252.